I gather from listening to the BBC 7.00am news on the way to work, that Japan is claiming that the terms of the Kyoto Protocol were loaded against them. The 1990 baseline favoured the likes of the UK and Germany – the Germans closed old, dirty, inefficient industry in the former East Germany, and the UK shut down much of its coal industry. Meanwhile, Japan had made big strides in energy efficiency in the 1980s. The moral of this story is clear – be careful what you sign up to. Even if implemented in full, which it won’t be, the Kyoto Protocol will have no measureable effect on climate. Hence, I now refer to the Kyoto Protocol as the ‘Don Quixote Protocol’ because the ‘fight’ is against an imaginary enemy that turned out to be windmills (wind turbines being the modern equivalent).
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Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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Mas acompanados y paniguados debe di tener la locura que la discrecion.
Folly is wont to have more followers and comrades than discretion.
–Cervantes, Don Quixote
Well, shewt, Kyoto is “loaded against” everyone.
Except for those undiscovered jungle tribes they keep on discovering. The tribals don’t have bank accounts, so they can’t access those massive payments to “developing” nations, etc.
But let’s look long term. Carbon credits invested with Al Gore, invested in General Electric stock, might have them in blue jeans, dental clinics and general literacy in no time at all!
Gosh, maybe not. Hmph.